Elastomer-based pneumatic switch for radio frequency microdevices

This paper reports the realization and characterization of a pneumatic microswitch integrated with a high-frequency radio frequency (RF) transmission line on an elastomer substrate. A process for the fabrication of low-loss RF coplanar transmission lines on flexible elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates was developed, and devices realized using this process were used to determine the characteristics of PDMS as an RF substrate with uniform low loss and low dielectric constant being measured